It's Hard to Read When You're Fast Asleep
by Squishy360
Summary: Mob passes out. ? ? ?% wakes up. Ritsu helps his brother take care of himself in the meantime. (Family fluff, takes place before chapter 100)


The first thing that he noticed when he came to was that he was face down on a bulky textbook.

For a moment, he didn't move, and only blinked sluggishly at his obscured vision. His head felt like it was full of cotton, and his mind was a complete fog. It was as if he was in a deep slumber for an eternity, and yet he found himself waking up exhausted.

He remained in that position for a couple minutes, mind blank, before sitting up and observing his surroundings. He found himself sitting at his desk in his bedroom, textbook open and a worn notebook to the side. Squinting hard at the textbook gave no leads, as the letters and symbols floated around the page like water. It was as if he were trying to read something in a dream and only saw gibberish.

Why… was he here?

His stomach growled loudly.

Oh. That's why.

On cue, the boy stood up rigidly like a puppet. As he stood, the computer chair he was sitting on skidded around the room and clattered against the opposite wall, despite barely being nudged by his body. He paid no mind to that, though. The only thing he was focused on was leaving the bedroom and going to the kitchen. Because the kitchen had food and his body needed food and if he didn't get that food- well, that wouldn't be good. His body was already feeling lethargic and weak, and his stomach felt like it was slowly eating itself.

The boy made his way to the bedroom door, which swung open and slammed loudly against the wall. He stumbled out of the room and into the hallway, paying no attention to how the picture frames on the wall swung haphazardly as he walked by, or how the floorboards groaned beneath his weight.

As he turned the corner, however, the bookshelf that hugged the wall began to wobble dangerously. Not even a moment later it toppled over and slammed right into the floor, spilling books across his feet.

Well, he couldn't ignore that. The shelf was in the way, and frankly he was a bit sick of books at this point. With a gentle wave of his hand, the bookshelf creaked and rose off the ground, levitating in the air for a brief, still moment.

Then, he dropped his arm. The bookshelf, once again under the impression of gravity, crashed against the floor with an ear-piercing thud- this time back against the wall. It was a miracle that it was still in one piece after that, if he were to think about it. But he didn't, and only stepped over the books that still littered the ground.

Like the rest of the house, the kitchen was devoid of any life. Only the hum of the appliances and the lights overhead were evidence that the place wasn't totally abandoned. The boy stood there, taking a moment to rack his brain and try to remember who else lived in this empty house with him. Hm. Hmm. No. His mind was still hazy. But that wasn't his priority right now.

He stumbled across the kitchen, making his way to the refrigerator. Its door swung open, and he stood before it motionless, save for his billowing hair. Similarly to the textbook back in his room, he had trouble focusing on the words on the bottles and containers before him. Well, it didn't matter, did it? If it was in the fridge, then it was food, and that meant he could eat it. He opened his hand and allowed a slim red bottle to gently float into his grasp. His skin prickled with numbness at the contact, as if his entire hand had fallen asleep.

Suddenly, there was the sound of front door down the hall opening, then creaking close.

"I'm home!" a young voice called out. A faint, soft aura came from the other side of the house. Familiar.

Footsteps approached from down the hall. "Nii-san?" the voice called. "I saw your shoes by the door, did you skip work today?"

He did not reply.

The footsteps continued to approach the kitchen, but notably slowed down for a moment. "Why are the books all over the floor?" When he didn't reply again, there was a deep pause, and the footsteps rushed down the rest of the hallway and into the kitchen.

Ritsu stood at the doorway, eyes wide.

He stared back, unmoving, fingers still wrapped around the bottle.

They stood there for at least a solid minute, silence suffocating the atmosphere, and he noted that the younger boy was slightly trembling. In fact, he looked terrified. This confused him, but only a little. He opted to blink slowly at the other.

The gesture seemed to get across to Ritsu, yet he still was visibly stiff at the other side of the kitchen. He opened his mouth, jaw trembling, then closed it. Then, opened it again to croak out, "Nii-san?"

He stared.

Ritsu entered the kitchen but kept his distance. "Are you okay? You're not hurt? You…" he trailed off, fear rolling off his aura like crashing waves.

His fingers twitched against the bottle, and the other's gaze snap down to it in an instant.

"Ketchup?" the younger blurts out, and for a brief moment he could practically see the gears turning in the other's head. "Are you… hungry, Nii-san?"

Yes. He was very hungry. As if on cue, his stomach let out another loud growl. It probably would have been embarrassing, but it seemed to get his point across.

His little brother only stared at him; his face nearly unreadable. Then, after a moment, he smiled awkwardly and let out a weak, tight laugh. "Ketchup isn't much of a meal, you know," he said, voice still tense with agitation. "Mom and Dad are still at work, so dinner hasn't been made yet."

Silence hung over the room for another brief moment.

He then stammered, "Do you- Want me to help you make lunch, Nii-san?"

Ritsu, offering to help. Help was… nice. Ritsu was a nice boy, he vaguely remembered. He took a rickety step forward, then another-

His brother's eyes widened, taking a step back-

He stopped. Then, he handed over the ketchup bottle.

Ritsu blinked, staring at the bottle as if it wasn't from this world. Then, he gave a shaky smile, accepting it. "How does omurice sound?"

He blinked gently. That sounded good.

And with that, Ritsu started gathering the ingredients needed for the dish. The younger boy grabbed a few white, round things- right, those were eggs- from the refrigerator and a container of- something. He also grabbed a pan from the cabinet and set it on the stove.

He opted to just watch his little brother make the meal, not entirely sure on what to do. If Ritsu were to stray too far away from him, he would just quietly follow along.

At one point, he stood right behind Ritsu, hovering over his shoulder and watching him flip the contents of the pan around. It took a minute for the younger boy to realize that his brother was standing so closely, and when he did, he practically jumped out of his skin and yelped.

Before Ritsu could say anything, he handed over an egg, fingers twitching as he tried not to squeeze it too hard.

Ritsu blinked, then took the egg from his hand, a small smile appearing on his face. "Thank you, Nii-san." For the first time since he entered the kitchen, he noticed Ritsu's shoulders finally relaxing as he continued to cook.

Eventually the warm aroma of eggs and rice enveloped the kitchen. Ritsu turned off the stove and began to prepare two plates. In the meantime, he made his way to the dining table. With a twitch of his fingers, two chairs slid out for the both of them to take a seat, and he plopped down silently. Just a moment later Ritsu followed, placing both plates down along with the bottle of ketchup.

"There you go," he said, taking a seat.

He stared down at his plate, watching the steam rise from the still hot omelette wrap. It even had ketchup drizzled on it already. Carefully, he grabbed his spoon and took a tentative bite. His entire body still buzzed with that sleep-like numbness, but even that couldn't mask the sweet and savory taste that the food gave. Immediately, he was reminded of his mother's cooking- and the pleasant sensation caught him off guard enough to make his spoon bent harshly.

Ritsu looked up from his meal, eyebrows raised.

He met his little brother's gaze, unsure of what to do, but he suddenly found himself handing over the misshaped spoon. He wasn't exactly sure why.

Ritsu seemed to understand, though. The boy smiled softly and took the spoon, grabbed a napkin, and twisted it back into shape.

He watched the younger brother do so, a faint familiarity tugging at the corners of his mind.

"Here you go," Ritsu says, handing back the spoon, and he accepted it wordlessly.

They continued their lunch in silence. He didn't realize how hungry he was until he was until he had started to eat. The rice and vegetables inside the thin egg wrap were warm and very filling, and the ketchup topping added such a delicious sweetness. It didn't take long for his plate to empty.

He put the slightly mangled spoon down on the table and gazed over at Ritsu, who was still eating.

Ritsu, after a moment, noticed his brother's intense stare. He swallowed his food. "Finished already?" he asked. "I suppose you really _were_ hungry, huh?"

He was. But he was feeling better, thanks to him. Thank him. Tell him thank you, he thought. Ritsu didn't have to make that lunch, but he did.

He opened his mouth slightly, trying to show a sign of gratitude for his generosity, but even though his stomach and heart were warm from the meal his vocal cords remained cold and unfeeling and numb. Speaking seemed nearly impossible, for some reason. His agape mouth went dry and his jaw trembled with effort. Speak, he tried to will himself. Say thank you. Be a nice big brother.

Ritsu, catching the minuscule hints of distressed on his blank face, furrowed his eyebrows with worry. "Nii-san?" he asked tentatively. "Did you not like it? Are you feeling ill?"

With one last ditch effort to express his thanks, he heaved his heavy chest and-

"**A̷͉̜͛̍͊h̷͉̞̆̈́,̴̤̘̂**" he wheezed out, strangled voice sounding like the static that engulfed his mind and made it hard to think.

Ritsu, poor kind good brother Ritsu, who had managed to read his brother like a book this entire time, clearly couldn't decipher the meaning behind his choked-out grunt. In fact, he only looked more confused, and still slightly worried. Failing to express his appreciation to his younger brother made him feel crestfallen on the inside.

After a moment, Ritsu spoke again. "You must have overworked yourself to get like this, Nii-san," he said, tone serious and laced with concern. "Maybe you should take a nap? I'll wake you up before dinner."

He blinked, letting the suggestion sink in. A nap… didn't sound too bad. Actually, it sounded really nice. He had been hungry, and that had just been taken care of, so the next thing to do would be to rest a bit, right? He _did_ feel tired. Once again, Ritsu seemed to know him better than he knew himself right now.

Wordlessly, he stood up from his chair, knee joints locking and body stiff. Before he turned to retreat to his bedroom, however, he reached out and ruffled his little brother's hair as gently as he possibly could.

Ritsu visibly stiffened at the touch at first, but the tension soon melted away from his body as a warm smile grew on his face.

With that, he dropped his arm and began to walk back to his room. As he did, he didn't seem notice how the picture frames swung less haphazardly that before, or how the books that were still scattered on the ground replace themselves on the shelf as he walked by. He didn't notice that his stride was less wobbly or how the floorboards creaked less. Entering his room, he didn't seem to care that the door shut itself more gently behind him than it did earlier that afternoon.

He walked slowly to his futon on the ground, eyelids droopy, and allowed himself to unceremoniously collapse under the covers and succumb to his exhaustion that had stuck with him since the moment he had woken up.

* * *

The first thing Mob noticed when he came to was that he had somehow managed to fall asleep on his futon.

The young boy blinked slowly, then sat up and stretched, the sheets that had covered him falling to his lap. Huh? It seemed like he had fallen asleep with his school uniform still on…

Just then, someone gently knocked on his bedroom door, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Nii-san?" Ritsu's muffled voice came from the other side.

"Come in," Mob called drowsily. The doorknob turned and Ritsu stood at the doorway, eyeing him carefully.

"How ya feeling?" was all he asked.

Mob titled his head, trying to find the words.

"Fine… Still kinda sleepy though. How long was I asleep?"

Ritsu leaned against the doorway. "Not too long, just a few hours," he explained. A pause. "You seemed exhausted today. Has anything been happening lately? You can tell me anything."

Mob raised his eyebrows as he suddenly remembered, then he looked away sheepishly. "Uh, yeah. I have this big exam coming up next week, and I haven't been doing so well in the class, so… I've been studying a lot these past few days." He rubbed his nose. "I guess I haven't been taking good care of myself lately."

Ritsu frowned slightly, clearly worried. "I see. When's the last time you've eaten?"

Mob blinked, then scratched his head. He remembered eating dinner last night with his family, but that night he had stayed up to study, and even used up his free time at school to review his notes… Then he went straight home after school, too. He wouldn't be surprised if he were to check his phone to find a dozen missed calls from Reigen.

"Not since yesterday," he admitted. Although, he didn't feel as hungry as he thought. Maybe it was the nerves for the upcoming test?

Ritsu was giving him a strange look that he couldn't decipher, like he knew something Mob didn't. But not even a moment later did he give his older brother a gentle smile. "Well, dinner's almost ready. Wanna help me set the table?"

Mob blinked again, then nodded, giving a small smile in return. "Okay. Thank you, Ritsu."

Ritsu froze. "Thank you for what?"

"For-" Mob paused, mind drawing up a blank. He wasn't sure why he said that, either. It must have slipped. "Thank you for checking up on me, I mean."

Ritsu gazed at his brother wordlessly, then nodded, smiling wider. "Anytime, Nii-san."


End file.
